Hi Colin. I think that your problem with the use of the Garmin compass screen stems from a misunderstanding regarding the way it works (which may in turn be due to Garmin's poor documentation). If I understand what you are saying below, you seem to think that the compass pointer is supposed to point to the waypoint. It does not, and is not designed to do so. I could see why one might be confused, since the summary of this feature in the Garmin manuals describes the pointer as "pointer to waypoint". This is very misleading. If you dig a bit deeper into the function of the pointer (by reading the documentation for the fully featured Garmin receivers, not the "dumbed-down" eTrex) you will find that the pointer does NOT point to the waypoint, but rather is provides information that is much more useful than this. So what is the function of the pointer, if not to point to the waypoint? The pointer on the compass page is a course-correction pointer--it shows the discrepancy between your heading (actual direction of travel, or "track" angle to use Garmin's nomenclature), and the bearing to the waypoint. For example, if you are holding a 30-degree ferry angle and this is the correct ferry angle to take you to your waypoint, the pointer will point straight ahead. This shows that you are holding the correct ferry angle, and should keep paddling in the same direction. (Do not correct your angle.) On the other hand, if your ferry angle is not correct (so that you are not heading directly towards your waypoint) the pointer will point left or right (indicating the direction and angle to correct your course so as to track directly to the waypoint). This becomes obvious if you are using a more fully-featured GPS (such as a Garmin 12), since on the compass page it will tell you simultaneously both your track angle and the bearing to the waypoint. The arrow is simply a graphical representation of the difference between these angles. I hope that this clears things up. I certainly agree with you that one should carry a deck compass in addition to the GPS, but not for the reason that you state. Happy paddling! Dan Hagen *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Sep 05 2000 - 09:31:19 PDT
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